LIBRARY 

07  CAT.TFORN*A 


If  Jesus 
Came  to  Boston 


By 


Edward    E.   Hale 

ff 


VT-CRESCIT 


Boston 

Lamson,   Wolffe,    and   Company 

6,    Beacon   Street 

1895 


FTWTV  CALIFORNIA 


Copyright,  1894, 
BY  J.   STILLMAN   SMITH  &  Co. 


Copyright,  1895, 
BY  LAMSON,  WOLFFE,  &  Co. 


PREFACE. 


MR.  STEAD  has  written  a  valuable  book,  under 
the  striking  title,  "  If  Christ  came  to  Chicago." 
It  has  excited  much  comment  and  much  alarm. 
It  has  suggested  to  ill-informed  people  that  Christ's 
plans  have  failed  badly,  and  that,  as  has  been  well 
said,  "  we  are  all  going  to  hell  remarkably  fast,  — 
as  we  are  not."  We  have  no  wish  to  abate  the 
force  of  any  one  of  its  warnings.  We  have  no 
desire  to  contrast  the  cities  of  Boston  and  Chicago, 
—  which  are,  indeed,  cities  curiously  alike  in  many 
important  regards,  though  not  always  thought  so. 

But  we  believe  it  so  important  that  every  student 

* 
of  life  should  take  all  points  of  view,  that  we  are 

glad  to  be  able  to  present  another  picture,  as  our 


4  PREFACE. 

friend  Dr.  Primrose  happened  to  see  it.  He  had 
noted  the  title  of  Mr.  Stead's  sketch,  and,  to  some 
notes  of  his  week's  experience  with  his  unknown 
friend,  we  venture  to  give  the  title  above,  "  If 
Jesus  came  to  Boston." 


IF   JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 


CHAPTER    I. 

I  HAD  Mr.  Stead's  book  in  my  pocket  one 
afternoon  when  I  called  on  Dr.  Primrose.  I  am 
used  to  advising  with  him,  and  I  get  good  sense 
from  him,  if  I  let  him  have  his  head  and  do  not 
interrupt  him.  I  found  him  on  the  back  veranda 
of  his  pretty  house  in  South  Boston,  —  high 
enough,  it  stands,  to  overlook  the  whole  bay.  A 
pretty  sight,  of  an  October  afternoon,  when  the 
yachts  are  all  astir,  and  everything  is  sunny  and 
the  sea  is  blue. 

It  is  the  old  Fred.  Ingham  house,  if  you 
remember  it.  The  doctor  was  at  home,  from 
his  day's  round,  and  was  reading  his  "  Outlook." 
But  he  threw  the  paper  down,  found  two  chairs 
for  me,  one  for  my  body  and  one  for  my  feet, 
resumed  the  two  in  which  he  had  made  himself 
comfortable,  and  bade  me  watch  the  Pilgrim  as 
she  beat  up  the  narrow  channel  against  the  south- 


6  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

west  wind.  I  did  so.  But  I  told  him  why  I  had 
come.  I  took  out  Mr.  Stead's  book.  I  found 
he  had  seen  it  already. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  and  they  took  the  Saviour 
into  very  bad  places.  I  could  do  it  here.  Hells 
and  slums  and  dives,  —  opium,  gambling,  adul 
tery,  and  murder,  —  I  could  show  it  all  to  him 
here,  as  I  could  have  showed  it  to  him  in  Jeru 
salem  or  Tiberias,  or  as  they  can  in  Chicago  now. 
But  I  could  show  him  other  things,  too,  which  I 
could  not  have  shown  him  in  Jerusalem  or  Naz 
areth  or  Bethlehem,  —  and  they  could  have  done 
so  there." 

He  spoke  earnestly.  He  turned  and  looked  me 
square  in  the  face.  He  saw  he  had  my  attention, 
and  he  went  on. 

"  I  should  hardly  tell  you  this  experience  of 
mine  but  that  you  brought  Stead's  book.  It 
was  all  a  little  strange  to  me.  But  there  was  no 
secret." 

He  called  Ellen,  and  told  her  to  bring  a  paper 
bag  of  peaches  she  would  find  on  the  hall  table, 
and  some  knives  and  plates  and  napkins.  When 
she  had  done  this,  he  bade  me  help  myself,  and 
he  began. 


IF  JESUS  CAME  TO   BOSTON.  7 

CHATTER   II. 

DR.  PRIMROSE'S   STORY. 

IT  was  when  I  was  coming  home  from  England 
last.  We  had  not  a  full  list,  for  it  was  rather  early 
in  the  year.  But  I  thought  I  knew  every  man  on 
board  in  the  first  cabin.  So  I  was  a  little  surprised 
one  morning  at  breakfast,  where  I  was  always  early, 
to  see  a  man  opposite  me  whom  I  had  not  seen 
before.  We  were  then  within  two  days  of  Boston ; 
we  had  been  on  the  Banks,  oh,  two  or  three  days. 
But  I  bowed  to  him,  and  he  to  me,  and  fell  to  talk, 
—  no  one  else  there.  The  night  had  been  rough, 
and  they  were  all  sick  again. 

There  was,  perhaps,  the  least  possible  accent  in 
his  voice,  —  or  was  there?  Was  it  possible  that 
he  spoke  the  English  of  books,  or  of  the  Bible,  — 
and  not  that  of  every  day?  But  his  face  was  all 
alive,  his  eye  told  what  he  was  saying  before  he 
spoke,  and,  in  spite  of  you,  you  said  your  best  to 
him,'  as  you  do  when  any  man  tells  you  the  whole, 
without  reserve.  We  had  not  talked  two  minutes 
before  —  well,  he  could  have  got  out  of  me  all  he 
chose.  He  was  ready  to  tell  me  all  he  wanted, 


8  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

and  he  seemed  to  know  that  I  should  want  to  do 
it.  We  sat  long  at  breakfast,  then  we  went  on 
deck  to  walk,  and  —  well,  I  stayed  with  him  all 
that  day.  This  was  perhaps  ten  o'clock. 

I  had  guessed  that  he  was  from  the  east  of  the 
Mediterranean, — a  Syrian.  He  had  that  firm,  strong 
look  that  you  have  seen  among  the  Druses.  Tall, 
—  six  feet  high,  —  as  dark  as  some  Italians  in  com 
plexion,  this  charming  smile  I  tell  you  of,  and  a 
perfect  sympathy  as  he  listened.  Strong?  Yes, 
as  Julius  Caesar ;  but  affectionate,  almost  caressing. 

He  was  on  a  queer  errand,  which  he  fevealed 
to  me  at  once,  because,  as  he  said,  I  could  help 
him.  He  seemed  to  think  that  this  made  it  sure 
I  would,  —  and,  indeed,  he  was  right  there.  Why, 
if  he  asked  a  deck-hand  to  go  down  to  the  steer 
age  with  him,  the  man  went  at  once,  as  my  boy 
Will  there  always  comes  with  me,  unless  I  send 
him  away.  So,  as  I  say,  we  walked  the  deck 
together,  while  he  told  me  what  brought  him  to 
America. 

He  had  a  brother  over  here,  he  said,  "  at  least 
I  call  him  my  brother,"  —  whom,  oddly  enough, 
he  had  never  seen.  In  fact,  before  we  were  done, 
I  came  to  think  that  this  was  only  a  half-brother, 
or  maybe  some  far-away  cousin  who  was  called  a 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  9 

brother,  — clearly  enough,  a  sort  of  an  Ishmaelite. 
This  fellow  had  strayed  away,  they  did  not  know 
where  at  first,  till  something  turned  up  which 
showed  he  was  or  had  been  in  America ;  and  my 
friend  had  come  to  look  him  up.  I  asked  about 
the  family,  and  then  he  smiled  with  that  friendly 
smile  of  his. 

Oh,  nobody  knew  how  many  children  there 
were  !  Wife?  She  was  a  sort  of  Arab  or  Edom- 
ite  of  some  kind;  she  must  be  dead.  But  he 
knew  certainly  of  a  dozen  children,  boys  and  girls 
both;  I  think  he  thought  there  were  thirteen,  all 
told.  Anyway,  they  were  lost,  and  he  was  bound 
to  find  them. 

In  my  stupid  way  I  tried  to  make  him  under 
stand  that  our  country  is  very  large,  and  that 
people  scatter,  and  that  we  keep  no  statistics 
about  such  people  if  we  can  help  it.  But  he  did 
not  attend  much  to  what  I  said.  It  was  clear  that 
he  was  used  to  success,  and  he  meant  to  succeed. 
"  Legions  of  people  to  help,  you  know,"  he  said, 
and  implied  rather  gently  that  he  should  not  give 
it  up  before  he  began.  And  I,  —  well,  if  you 
knew  him  you  would  not  wonder, —  I  "  highly 
determined  "•  that  I  would  not  leave  him  till  they 
were  found. 


IO  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

Well,  that  seemed  to  be  the  way  right  along.  I 
told  him,  of  course,  that  he  must  come  to  my 
house  and  stay  with  me  here;  and  he  said  he 
would.  But  actually,  on  the  pier,  after  the  ship 
was  made  fast,  waiting  on  the  end  of  the  steerage 
gangway  I  saw  Miss  Burnett,  the  Young  Travel 
ler's  Friend,  and  a  girl,  whose  name  I  do  not 
know,  with  the  uniform  of  the  Salvation  Army. 
To  their  surprise  and  mine,  my  friend  shook 
hands  with  them  both,  and  they  tried  to  remem 
ber  where  they  had  seen  him  before.  I  told  Miss 
Burnett  that  we  had  these  people  to  look  up  ;  and 
she  laughed,  and  said  we  had  come  to  the  right 
office  this  time.  She  was  here,  and  her  friend,  for 
the  exact  purpose  of  meeting  the  steerage-women, 
as  they  landed,  to  see  that  they  got  into  no 
scrapes.  They  had  the  name  of  a  family  from 
Genoa,  about  whom  the  Army  people  had  tele 
graphed  from  Italy;  and,  when  all  the  steerage 
people  had  landed,  she  could  go  to  the  office  with 
us  and  hunt  up  our  baker's  dozen. 

When  they  said  "  hunt  them  up,"  my  friend 
looked  at  me,  and  intimated  that  this  thing  was 
easier  than  I  had  thought.  But  Eliza  Burnett 
said  at  once : 

"  But,  Dr.  Primrose,  why  do  you  wait?     Why 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  II 

not  go  yourself  to  Allen  street  and  see  if  they 
have  not  run  across  them?  Then  she  will  tele 
phone  to  Miss  Smith,  and  they  will  tell  you  what 
they  know  at  headquarters."  "  Allen  street "  meant 
Mrs.  Grove's  house,  where  are  lodging-rooms  of 
the  "Young  Traveller's  Aid." 

And  so  she  took  down  on  her  book  the  name 
"  Ishmael  Benagar,"  which  I  came  to  know  so  well, 
nodded,  and  ran  into  the  steerage  with  her  friend, 
to  find  the  Genoese  girl. 

I  and  my  companion  went  our  way.  I  found 
myself  calling  him  back  sometimes,  where  he  un 
dertook  to  lead ;  for  I  did  think  that  if  I  knew 
anything,  I  knew  about  the  North  End  streets,  and 
I  did  not  suppose  he  did.  He  was  amused  at 
my  persistency  in  my  own  plans,  and  yet,  oddly 
enough,  he  seemed  always  to  come  out  right  in  his. 
We  struck  just  the  right  boat  without  waiting,  and 
brought  up,  as  we  were  bidden,  at  Allen  street. 
On  a  hint  of  theirs,  we  went  next  to  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
office  in  Berkeley  street.  We  were  shown  into  the 
office,  —  carpet  rather  worn,  long  table  in  the 
middle,  four  or  five  chairs,  bookcase  with  glass 
doors  well  stocked.  My  friend  began  to  look  at 
the  books.  But  he  had  no  time  to  read  before 
Miss  Drinkwater,  the  chief,  came  in.  It  seemed 


12  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

almost  as  if  she  had  been  waiting  for  us.  The 
upshot  of  it  all  was  this : 

Their  index,  for  years  back,  showed  no  Benagar. 
But  every  one  remembered  "  that  pretty  Benaco 
girl,"  and  every  one  knew  where  she  was,  —  with 
a  nice  family  in  Maiden,  where  she  took  care  of 
the  little  children.  The  people  were  much  inter 
ested  in  her,  and  made  of  her  an  older  sister  in  the 
family.  The  description  tallied  so  well  with  my 
friend's  recollection  of  Benagar's  mother,  that  he 
took  a  note  of  the*  Maiden  home,  —  sure  he  should 
find  it,  as  I  noticed,  —  and  determined  to  go  there. 
Miss  Drinkwater  meanwhile  had  called  Miss  Zilpha 
Smith,  and  was  talking  to  her,  at  the  Chardon- 
street  Bureau,  through  the  telephone. 

In  my  dull  Western  arrogance  I  fancied  that  the 
telephone  might  surprise  him.  I  did  not  suppose 
they  had  them  at  Acre  or  at  Petra.  But  no.  He 
took  all  such  marvels  as  though  they  were  matters 
of  course.  He  had  to  guess  from  what  Miss 
Drinkwater  said  what  were  Miss  Smith's  replies. 
And,  where  he  could  not  guess,  Miss  Drinkwater 
interpreted. 

"We  want  a  family  named  Benagar,  Syrian 
people."  —  "  Yes."  —  "  B-e-n-a-g-a-r.  If  you  do 
not  find  that,  try  Benaco,  B-e-n-a-c-o."  — "  Yes."  — 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  13 

"  Yes."  —  "  Twelve  children  besides  a  girl  in 
Maiden."  — "Yes."— "No."  Then  she  laughed 
and  turned  to  us.  "  They  have  not  found  any 
Benaco  but  ours ;  they  had  her.  But  they  are  a 
bright  set  there.  They  think  they  have  them  as 
"  Vinegar,"  —  but  they  have  called  a  visitor  to 
Salutation  alley,  and  they  will  know  in  a  few 
minutes." 

So  we  waited,  and  my  friend  asked  Miss  Drink- 
water  how  she  fell  in  with  Miriam,  the  girl  he  felt 
sure  of.  It  was  a  pretty  story. 

"  This  Miriam  —  oh,  such  a  pretty,  graceful 
creature  —  found  herself  at  a  railroad  station 
alone,  at  ten  o'clock.  Her  father  had  undertaken 
to  meet  her,  and  was  not  there." 

My  friend  bowed  gravely,  as  if  such  were  his 
brother's  custom.  He  said  beneath  his  breath, 
but  so  I  could  hear  him,  "  I  go,  sir,  and  he  went 
not."  Miss  Drinkwater  did  not  observe,  and  went 
on  with  her  story. 

"  If  the  child  had  not  been  frightened,"  she  said, 
"  Mr.  Parvis  would  have  taken  care  of  her.  Or,  if 
she  had  met  Mrs.  Marceline,  she  would  have  taken 
care  of  her,  or,  the  carriage  men  are  very  good, 
and  she  might  have  been  safe  in  five  minutes. 
But  she  thought  she  could  find  her  father.  He 


14  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

had  written  where  he  lived,  and  that  child,  at  ten 
at  night,  set  out  to  find  her  way  in  Boston.  Where 
she  went,  the  recording  angel  knows.  Where  she 
came  out  was  at  Miss  Gardner's  house  in  Berkeley 
street,  or  at  the  Temporary  Home.  They  saw  she 
was  all  right,  and  they  took  her  in." 

"  What  do  you  mean  when  you  say  *  all 
right '  ?  "  said  he  gravely. 

"  Oh,  I  mean  she  was  a  stranger,  and  they  took 
her  in.  That  is  what  they  are  for." 

Then  he  turned  to  me,  and  said  he  thought  we 
had  better  go  there  on  the  way  to  Maiden.  But 
at  this  moment  the  telephone  rang. 

"  Yes."  —  "  Yes."  —  "  No."  —  "  Certainly."  — 
"  Spell  it."  And  then  she  turned  to  us.  "  There 
is  one  of  the  children,  Mahalath  Vinegar,  now  at 
the  Hancock  School.  If  you  get  there  before 
twelve  you  can  see  her.  She  will  take  you  to  her 
brother's  house.  They  know  nothing  of  any 
father." 

My  friend  smiled  gladly  as  he  heard  the  name 
Mahalath,  and  said,  "  That  is  right,  that  is  right ! 
I  know  he  would  have  named  one  child  for  her 
grandmother." 

"  But  at  the  office  they  call  them  Egyptians. 
They  thought  they  were  gypsies." 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  15 

"  Well,  of  course,  his  mother  was  an  Egyptian." 

And  then,  promising  to  come  again,  we  left  in 
hot  haste  for  the  Hancock-Cushman  School.  But 
we  did  not  find  it,  for  all  our  haste,  until  the 
afternoon. 

We  were  crossing  Pleasant  street,  —  running, 
indeed,  to  take  a  cab,  —  when  a  dark-faced  young 
man,  just  ahead  of  us,  slipped  and  fell  on  the  wet 
pavement.  A  heavy  coal-cart  was  just  turning 
round,  knocked  him  down,  and  the  wheel  jammed 
his  foot  horribly.  A  fez  fell  from  his  head  as  he 
fell.  Quick  as  light,  my  companion  was  at  his 
side,  and  lifted  him  to  the  sidewalk.  I  followed, 
as  soon  as  I  could,  and  I  saw  that  they  were  talk 
ing  in  some  tongue  unknown  to  me.  I  helped  to 
carry  him  into  a  shop  ;  but  at  the  moment  a  police 
man  touched  me  and  said  he  had  called  an  ambu 
lance,  —  and,  indeed,  before  we  were  fairly  in  the 
shop,  the  ambulance  appeared.  The  men  had 
stretchers  with  them,  so  that  the  wounded  man 
had  not  even  to  limp ;  and  when  he  was  com 
fortable  in  the  wagon,  the  officer  said  to  my 
friend : 

"  I  see  you  can  speak  with  him.  Can  you  go  to 
the  hospital?" 

And  in  a  moment  they  were  off.     I  followed,  in 


l6  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

a  cab  I  called,  and  was  there  almost  as  soon  as 
they.  I  explained  who  I  was,  and  was  led  to  the 
room  where  the  party  had  arrived  just  before  me, 
and  where  the  poor  sufferer  was  already  on  a  bed. 
They  were  carefully  taking  off  his  trousers,  —  his 
boots  were  off  already,  —  and  then  began  the  ex 
amination  of  the  wound. 

The  tenderness  and  skill  of  the  surgeon  were 
exquisite.  The  delicacy  and  silent  precision  of 
the  nurses  were  as  perfect.  I  know  I  said  to  my 
wife,  when  I  came  home,  that  the  whole  seemed  to 
me  like  a  sacrament.  In  a  few  minutes  the  first 
examination  and  dressing  were  over,  the  surgeon 
looked  at  his  watch,  and  said,  "  Dr.  Cheever  will 
be  here  in  an  hour;  "  and  then  gently  intimated  to 
me  and  my  friend  that  we  had  better  go.  Benda- 
oeed  bent  over  his  countryman  to  say  a  word  to 
him  in  Syriac,  and  then  followed  me. 

"I  am  not  sure,"  he  whispered,  "  but  he  has  just 
the  look  of  his  grandfather."  And  then  he  begged 
me  to  take  him  to  the  chief  physician's  office,  and 
I  did  so.  He  thanked  that  gentleman,  with  Ori 
ental  warmth,  for  the  kindness  shown  to  his 
countryman.  "  My  brother's  son,  perhaps,"  he 
said,  with  feeling ;  and  he  took  out  two  great  pieces 
of  their  Eastern  money.  "  Pray  take  care  of  him," 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  I/ 

he  said.  "Take  this,  and  whatever  you  spend 
more,  when  I  come  again  I  will  repay  you." 

But  the  doctor  smiled  and  returned  the  coins. 
"  Not  at  all,  dear  sir.  You  will  have  enough  other 
chances  to  use  them.  This  is  what  we  are  for.  I 
am  glad  you  could  see  what  we  try  to  do  to  every 
child  of  God.  Your  good  Samaritan  countryman 
did  not  live  in  vain." 

And  so  the  Syrian  and  I  started  for  the  Han- 
cock-Cushman  School.  It  is  fully  two  miles  from 
the  hospital,  you  know,  so  I  had  a  chance  to  show 
him  some  of  our  customs,  good  and  bad.  I  re 
member  he  was  very  much  touched,  at  Blackstone 
square.  He  stopped  to  wet  his  lips  at  the  Apple- 
ton  fountain.  As  he  offered  me  the  cup  of  cold 
water,  I  took  it  as  a  sacrament,  and  I  said  to  him, 
"  In  the  name  of  a  disciple."  As  he  walked  on  he 
said,  "That  was  good.  Did  you  see  the  dogs 
drinking  at  the  lower  place,  while  the  horse  drank 
at  the  trough,  and  you  and  I  at  the  running  stream 
above?" 

We  stopped  to  see  Miss  Zilpha  Smith  at  the 
Bureau  of  Charities,  to  see  if  she  had  learned  any 
thing  more  of  the  tribe  of  Benagar,  Benaco,  or 
Vinegar.  But  she  had  almost  nothing  to  tell  us. 
This  "Vinegar"  child  was  staying  with  an  aunt, 


1 8  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

as  she  was  called,  where  there  had  been  an  acci 
dent,  and  the  Diet  Kitchen  had  provided  some 
special  food.  That  was  the  chance  by  which  this 
name  was  registered. 

My  friend  asked  about  the  registry,  and  Miss 
Smith  showed  him  the  outside  of  it,  —  she  would 
not  let  any  outsider  see  the  contents.  An  enor 
mous  case  of  cards,  which  had  the  histories  of  the 
people  who  had  been  in  need,  for  fourteen  years. 
But,  as  she  said,  if  the  Benagars  had  not  come  to 
need,  they  would  not  be  recorded  there.  Why 
did  he  think  they  had  come  to  need? 

This  waked  me  up,  of  course.  I  had  gone  off 
at  half-cock  in  supposing  that  they  had.  But  he 
had  misled  me;  and  even  now  it  was  quite  clear 
to  me  that  because  his  kinsman  had  come  to  need 
everywhere  else,  he  had,  naturally,  taken  it  for 
granted  that  he  would  here.  But  there  I  took 
up  my  parable.  I  said  that  thousands  on  thou 
sands  of  people  landed  here  every  year,  and  with 
tens  of  thousands  of  children,  who  never  came  to 
need.  I  told  him  of  that  New  Hampshire  farmer 
who  said  to  me  that  Cooke  could  have  a  fine  corn 
field,  because  Cooke  had  so  many  children ;  and  I 
said  that  the  country  meant  to  take  care  of  every 
body  who  came,  and  did  take  care  of  most  of 


IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON.  19 

them  without  their  coming  near  any  public 
authorities. 

"  I  thought  you  understood,"  said  I,  "  that  this 
is  only  the  margin  which  we  are  handling  here." 
He  intimated  again  that  Benagar  would  be  sure  to 
be  in  the  margin,  if  there  were  any.  But  I  was 
not  so  sure.  I  told  him,  however,  that  while  we 
were  there,  we  would  see  what  did  happen  to  the 
margin,  and  we  went  downstairs  to  Mr.  Pettee's 
office.  He  is  the  secretary  to  the  Overseers  of  the 
Poor. 

I  told  Mr.  Bendaoeed  that  it  would  not  do  to 
leave  the  matter  to  chance,  and  that  this  was 
therefore  a  separate  department,  with  almost  om 
nipotent  authority,  which  had  oversight  of  people 
who  came  to  need.  Nobody  is  to  starve  while 
the  Commonwealth  has  a  penny  left.  I  introduced 
him  to  Mr.  Pettee,  and  he  to  one  of  the  gentlemen 
who  had  the  oversight  of  separate  districts.  This 
gentleman  took  us  downstairs,  that  we  might  see 
with  our  own  eyes  the  distribution  of  food.  A 
tall,  thin  woman,  meanly  dressed,  met  us,  with  a 
bag  of  oatmeal  under  her  arm,  and  a  codfish  held 
by  the  tail  in  one  hand.  A  little  girl  of  thirteen 
or  fourteen  passed  me,  and  I  asked  her  to  show 
us  what  she  had,  which  was  an  order  for  coal  on 


20  IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

the  coal-dealer  in  her  district.  The  place  had  the 
aspect  of  a  back  room  in  a  country  store,  with 
bags  of  oatmeal  of  different  sizes  tied  up  ready 
for  immediate  delivery  on  the  orders  from  up 
stairs.  The  visitor  who  was  with  us  explained 
that  it  is  wholly  impossible  to  give  money  to  any 
one  in  need,  unless  he  fall  within  the  line  of  cer 
tain  pensioners,  of  whose  characters  the  authorities 
are  assured.  It  might  go  for  whiskey.  The  city 
prefers  to  give  the  food  itself,  which  is  to  go  into 
the  mouth  of  the  hungry. 

Then  I  took  my  friend  up  to  the  Provident  As 
sociation,  who  make  the  largest  distribution  of 
clothing  to  those  who  are  in  need.  But  my  real 
object  was,  that  at  the  "  Industrial  Aid  "  I  might 
see  if  any  Vinegar  or  Benaco  or  Benagar  had  ap 
plied  there  that  winter. 

So  we  looked  in  at  a  room  where  perhaps  a 
dozen  boys  were  sitting,  waiting  to  be  employed, 
and  ten  or  twelve  men,  —  and  I  introduced  my 
friend  to  Mr.  Peterson.  But  he  was  quite  sure 
that  he  had  neither  of  the  three  names  on  his  list, 
and  they  did  not  appear  upon  the  various  indexes. 

As  we  went  out  from  the  building,  my  companion 
said  that  he  observed  that  the  gentleman  who  had 
gone  downstairs  with  us,  and  his  companion,  spoke 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  21 

as  if  one  or  the  other  of  them  knew  all  these  peo 
ple.  I  said  it  was  so,  —  that  the  system  was  such 
that  all  these  people  came,  after  it  had  been  made 
sure  that  they  would  not  sell  the  food  given  them 
to  other  persons,  and  that  they  had  no  means  of 
earning  it  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow.  He  seemed 
to  understand  all  this  in  advance ;  but  he  said : 

"  But  what  would  come  to  one  of  those  poor 
people  who  landed  with  us,  for  instance ;  suppose 
that  in  the  first  hour  he  lost  his  purse  or  his  scrip, 
—  suppose  that  he  found  himself  hungry  at  one 
o'clock,  where  would  he  be?" 

I  said  I  was  glad  he  asked  me  the  question  just 
there ;  and  then  I  took  him  up  the  steps  of  the 
building  which  we  were  passing,  and  rang  the 
door-bell.  The  attendant  knew  me,  for  I  have  had 
more  than  one  occasion  to  take  a  stranger  there, 
and  admitted  us  at  once.  I  said,  "  Here  is  a  gen 
tleman  from  the  East  who  wants  to  see  what  sort 
of  chowder  you  make."  And  the  attendant 
laughed  and  took  me  into  the  dining-room. 

At  the  table  there  were  seated  one  or  two  men, 
and  at  another  table  in  the  next  room  three  or  four 
women.  I  told  him  that  these  were  exactly  such 
people  as  he  had  described.  They  were  people 
astray  in  Boston,  who  had  nothing  to  eat  as  noon 


22  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

came,  and  they  had  reported  themselves  to  the 
first  policeman  whom  they  saw.  This  policeman 
had  passed  them  to  the  next,  and  he  to  the  next ; 
or,  if  it  were  far  away,  he  had  paid  the  fare  of  one 
or  another  in  a  street  car,  that  he  might  come  to 
this  central  dining-place. 

"  Here,"  I  said,  "  you  see  the  fare  is  not  very 
attractive,  but  it  answers." 

This  particular  day  it  happened  to  be  fish  chow 
der,  and  the  men  evidently  ate  it  with  good  appe 
tite.  I  told  my  friend  that  I  wished  he  could 
taste  it ;  but  it  was  not  for  him  and  for  me,  and 
that  I  never  permitted  myself  to  pass  the  rule  of 
the  place  by  partaking  of  the  food  which  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  city  to  provide  for  those  that  were 
in  need.  Still,  looking  at  my  watch,  and  finding 
that  we  were  not  quite  at  two  o'cfock,  I  made  him 
go  upstairs  with  me,  that  he  might  see  the  babies. 
In  this  room  were  five  or  six  children,  not  dressed 
very  sumptuously,  but  in  neat  cribs,  with  clean 
sheets,  and  their  mothers  sitting  by  them,  knitting, 
gossiping,  and  watching  the  little  ones.  These 
were  the  stray  children  who,  with  their  mothers, 
had  gone  adrift  exactly  as  he  thought  it  might  be 
possible.  There  were  homes  here  and  homes  there, 
where  they  could  be  received ;  but  it  would  not  do 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  23 

for  them  to  be  sitting  upon  door-steps  while  they 
were  waiting  for  those  homes,  and  accordingly  the 
city  had  provided  this  resting-place  where  per 
haps  they  might  be  three  or  four  days,  until  the 
proper  letter  should  come  and  the  proper  arrange 
ment  be  made  which  should  place  mother  and  baby 
anew  in  a  home. 

He  played  a  little  with  one  or  two  of  the  babies, 
all  of  whom  took  to  him  on  the  moment.  He 
talked  with  the  mothers  and  then  with  Mrs. 
Crockett.  No,  she  had  not  kept  any  record  for 
a  long  time  of  the  number  of  people  she  sent 
away.  The  ladies  downstairs,  of  the  Industrial 
Aid,  had  found  homes  in  the  last  year  for  nearly 
three  hundred  of  these  poor  women.  The  truth 
was  that  these  women  were  most  of  them  poor 
creatures  broken  down  with  drink,  or  with  worse 
devils,  if  there  are  worse.  But  there  are  country 
towns  where  no  drink  can  be  got,  and  a  little  group 
of  ladies,  and  Mrs.  Crockett  herself,  make  it  their 
business  to  correspond  with  the  people  in  these 
country  towns.  Precisely  because  these  poor 
women  are  inefficient  and  cannot  bear  temptation, 
the  people  in  the  country  can  have  them,  and  take 
them  into  homes  where  there  will  not  be  tempta 
tion.  As  I  said  to  him,  —  and  I  noticed  his  eye 


24  IF  JESUS    CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

flashed,  —  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation  "  is  a 
good  prayer.  So  is  it  that,  back  in  New  England 
somewhere,  five  hundred  people  in  a  year  take 
five  hundred  of  these  broken-down  women  into 
their  homes,  sometimes  with  their  babies,  and  give 
them  the  new  chance  which  they  do  not  refuse. 
Why,  they  told  us  of  a  woman  who  had  been  to 
the  House  of  Correction  ten  times,  whom  a  New 
Hampshire  postmaster  —  not  yet  canonized,  be 
cause  this  did  not  happen  three  hundred  years 
ago  —  had  taken  care  of,  and  who  is  now  living  a 
decent  life.  His  face  had  its  most  heavenly  lopk 
when  I  told  him  this,  and  he  said,  "  I  had  rather 
take  care  of  that  sheep  in  the  mountains  than  of 
any  ninety  and  nine  that  never  went  astray."  So 
we  bade  Mrs.  Crockett  good-by,  and  he  gave  her 
his  Syrian  blessing  as  he  went  downstairs. 

As  we  went  down  the  street,  I  said,  "  You  see 
this  is  margin  of  the  margins.  It  does  not  do  to 
feel  that  anybody  can  starve,  or  even  that  anybody 
can  be  hungry.  This  is  the  provision  for  those 
who  are  on  the  very  edge." 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  25 


CHAPTER    III. 

I  WAS  glad  we  were  on  foot,  because  he  saw  the 
more  foreign  ways  of  Hanover  street  and  Salem 
street  better  than  if  we  had  been  in  a  car.  I 
pointed  out  to  him  the  Hebrew  signs,  but  found 
they  had  caught  his  eye.  In  truth,  after  we  entered 
Salem  street,  there  were  more  signs  in  his  own  lan 
guage  than  in  mine.  He  stopped  once  or  twice, 
and  shook  hands  with  one  or  another  person  whom 
he  recognized  as  of  Hebrew  origin,  and  at  once 
they  would  drop  into  speaking  in  the  dialect  which 
I  was  coming  to  know,  which  I  fancy  was  some 
form  of  modern  Syriac  or  Hebrew.  So  we  turned 
into  Parmenter  street.  I  rang  the  wrong  bell  by 
mistake  at  first,  but  was  directed  there  to  the 
larger  of  two  school-houses,  where  I  sent  in  my 
card,  with  his  name  upon  it  also  ;  and  in  a  moment 
we  were  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Button. 

I  told  Mr.  Button  our  errand,  and  at  the  first  he 
looked  doubtful.  He  had  not  yet,  perhaps,  at 
his  tongue's  end  the  names  of  all  the  twenty-one 
hundred  of  his  charges.  He  had  received  two 


26  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

hundred  and  fifty  girls  within  a  few  weeks,  but  he 
was  utterly  cordial  and  ready  to  tell  and  to  show 
everything  that  he  had.  "The  best  way,"  he 
said,  "  will  be  to  go  into  the  school-rooms,  and 
there  we  can  inquire  for  your  little  girl ;  "  and  he 
asked  how  old  she  was. 

This  was  just  what  her  kinsman  did  not 
know,  knowing  nothing  about  her  but  her  name. 
Whether  Mahalath  Vinegar  would  prove  to  be 
Mahalath  Benagar  remained  to  be  seen. 

In  the  first  room  into  which  we  went,  a  young 
lady,  who  was  the  teacher,  welcomed  us  with 
charming  hospitality;  and  on  the  instant  my 
friend  said,  "  No  matter  what  we  came  for.  Let 
us  see  what  you  are  doing  in  your  school."  I 
knew  that  he  was  interested  in  all  of  them  just  as 
much  as  in  the  one  who  was  conventionally  called 
his  relative.  The  teacher  explained  to  us  that 
not  one  of  these  fifty  children  could  speak  the 
English  language,  not  one  of  'them  was  of  the 
blood  of  the  people  who  settled  Massachusetts  or 
who  built  up  the  original  Boston.  More  than  half 
of  them,  she  told  him,  were  Hebrews ;  the  re 
mainder  were  Christian  Germans,  were  Italians,  or 
Portuguese,  or  perhaps  from  the  east  of  Europe. 
Then  I  asked  if  they  had  no  Syrians  or  Arabs  or 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON.  2/ 

Egyptians ;  and  she  said  not  in  her  room,  she  was 
sure.  But  notwithstanding  this  answer,  he  was  in 
terested,  and  he  remained. 

The  exercises  which  we  saw  were  wholly  for  the 
learning  how  to  speak  English.  She  told  us  that 
while  none  of  them  could  speak  English  now, 
before  next  June  they  all  would  have  learned  to 
write  English  intelligently,  to  speak  it  enough  for 
practical  purposes,  and  to  read  the  English  of 
simple  books  with  a  good  understanding.  I  do 
not  suppose  they  would  understand  a  translation 
from  Schopenhauer,  and  possibly  they  might  not 
understand  an  argument  for  free  trade;  but  for 
the  regular  work  of  daily  life  they  will  be  able, 
next  June,  to  read  English  sufficiently  well. 
Eagerly  I  asked  how  this  was  done.  She  called 
up  a  nice-looking  girl,  perhaps  ten  years  old,  and 
showed  to  her  a  large  box  filled  with  every  sort 
of  thing.  The  child  picked  over  it  gravely,  and 
then  by  a  string  lifted  a  little  basket,  and  said, 
with  very  clear  articulation,  "  This  is  a  basket." 
The  next  child  would  say,  "  This  is  a  bell ;  "  the 
next  child  would  choose  a  box  and  say,  "  This  is 
a  box."  If  the  articulation  were  not  well-nigh 
perfect,  the  teacher  would  correct,  and  the  child 
would  repeat,  until  she  spoke  it  distinctly.  One 


28  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

little  Italian  child  had  stopped  in  Paris  for  a  year 
on  their  emigration,  and  at  some  French  school 
had  been  taught  to  read  English  with  a  sufficiently 
correct  pronunciation.  The  only  reading  which 
we  witnessed  in  our  visit  was  the  reading  of  these 
English  words,  quite  well  pronounced,  by  a  child 
who  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  words  she 
read. 

What  was  pretty  about  it  all  was  the  eager  in 
terest  of  the  children.  They  were  clean,  their 
clothes  were  clean,  and  they  were  alive  with  inter 
est  in  what  was  said  and  done.  When  we  shall 
see  fifty  boys  as  much  interested  in  learning  Latin 
as  these  children  were  in  learning  English,  it  will 
not  take  boys  or  men  seven  years  to  study  the 
Latin  language,  and  then  find  out  that  they  cannot 
speak  it  intelligibly. 

We  went  from  room  to  room,  and  at  last,  in  a 
room  where  the  girls  had  been  two  or  three  years, 
this  tall,  brown,  large-eyed,  Arab-looking  Mahalath. 
appeared.  She  was  called  to  speak  with  her  kins 
man,  and  he  fairly  started  at  the  sight  of  her. 
Then  they  went  on  one  side,  that  she  might  tell 
him  her  story,  and  it  was  clear  to  me  that  he  had 
come  to  a  clew  in  his  labyrinth. 

The  teacher  asked  if  he  would   like  to  take  her 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  2Q 

away ;  but  he  said  no,  —  that  she  was  happy  and 
well  with  her  countrymen  where  she  was  staying. 
He  had  written  down  the  number  of  their  home, 
and  he  would  see  them  there.  Meanwhile  he 
would  not  keep  her  longer  from  the  work  of  the 
school ;  —  and  so  we  came  away. 

He  stopped  Mr.  Button  while  he  could  thank 
him  for  the  time  which  he  had  given  us,  and  then, 
in  the  same  courteous  way  in  which  he  had  spoken 
to  Dr.  Rowe  at  the  hospital,  asked  if  he  might  not 
be  permitted  to  leave  some  money  in  his  hands  for 
the  good  of  the  poor  children  or  those  who  were 
most  destitute.  But,  like  the  doctor,  Mr.  Button 
told  him  that  he  must  keep  his  money  for  those 
who  needed  it.  We  explained  to  him  that  this 
was  simply  the  business  of  a  Christian  State,  — 
that  we  were  trying  to  give  to  these  children  the 
best  we  could  give,  in  training  them  to  be  of  use 
in  life.  We  said  that  we  were  doing  it  for  each 
and  for  all ;  we  would  not  even  leave  the  parents 
to  say  whether  these  children  should  or  should 
not  be  trained  in  this  way.  We  obliged  them  to 
see  to  the  training,  in  one  form  or  another.  If 
they  had  no  better  place  for  them,  we  compelled 
the  children  to  come  into  this  school,  and,  as  he 
saw,  they  seemed  happy  while  they  were  there, 


3O  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

and  he  would  find  that  they  came  readily  and 
promptly  from  day  to  day. 

"  Our  business  is,"  I  said,  as  we  came  out  into 
Parmenter  street,  "  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind 
and  the  ears  of  the  deaf,  to  make  the  lame  walk, 
and,  in  a  word,  as  your  Master  and  mine  said,  to 
preach  glad  tidings  to  the  poor  in  such  way  that 
they  can  understand  it.  Nineteen  centuries  would 
have  been  worth  very  little  if  we  had  not  made 
some  advance  in  welcoming  the  stranger,  in 
feeding  the  hungry,  in  clothing  the  naked,  and  in 
caring  for  the  prisoner." 

He  half  heard  me,  he  did  not  interrupt  me,  — 
in  fact,  it  was  observable  that  he  never  inter 
rupted.  But  when  I  had  fairly  said  what  I  had 
to  say,  he  said : 

"When  you  say  '  prisoner/  I  cannot  help  think 
ing  of  my  poor  kinsman.  You  see,  all  you  have 
told  me  is  about  children  and  women.  Now, 
where  is  he  all  this  time?  "  He  said  he  was  will 
ing  to  confess  to  me  that  this  Benagar  was  but  a 
reckless  fellow.  He  had  a  passion  for  gambling, 
and  in  their  own  home  he  wasted  all  his  half 
of  their  father's  patrimony  in  what  his  brother 
called  "  riotous  living."  "  Now,"  said  he,  "  I  wish 
I  did  not  think  that  he  were  in  some  gambling 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  31 

hell,  as  I  believe  you  say,  at  this  moment."  And 
he  asked  me  if  there  were  any  way  in  which  we 
could  see  "  one  of  those  dens."  "  Dens  "  was  a 
word  he  spoke  almost  bitterly. 

To  tell  you  the  truth,  said  Dr.  Primrose,  he  had 
me  on  new  ground  here.  But,  as  I  said,  whatever 
that  man  asked  me  to  do,  I  did.  I  did  not  say  no 
to  him  once  when  he  made  any  appeal  to  me,  in 
the  days  when  we  were  together.  And  while  he 
made  his  visit  to  Salutation  alley  and  to  Maiden,  I 
made  the  preparation  for  our  visit  to  a  first-class 
"hell."  He  said  that  Benagar  would  be  in  the 
best  place  in  Boston  or  the  worst,  and  I  did  as  I 
am  apt  to  do,  —  I  struck  high. 

Oh,  no,  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  I  had  no 
business  there.  I  wanted  to  seek  and  save  what 
was  lost,  as  Bendaoeed  had  said  he  wanted  to. 
So  I  went  round  to  the  club,  and,  in  a  little,  one 
of  my  younger  friends  came  in,  and  I  told  him  I 
wanted  a  card  of  introduction  to  the  gambling- 
house  in  Boston  where  a  gentleman  from  the 
Levant  would  be  most  apt  to  be  found.  He 
laughed  very  heartily,  that  I  should  be  the  man  to 
ask  such  a  favor ;  he  called  one  of  my  friends,  and 
gave  me  away  at  once.  But  they  both  honored 
me  by  saying  that  they  knew  I  could  be  trusted. 


32  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

One  of  them  gave  me  his  card,  and  then  went  to 
the  telephone,  called  Buddy,  the  keeper  of  the 
house,  and  told  him  that  at  sharp  10.30  two  friends 
of  his  would  call,  and  that  he  was  responsible  for 
them.  Then  he  gave  me  the  number  of  the  house, 
and  the  street,  and  went  to  play  billiards. 


IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON.  33 


CHAPTER    IV. 

MY  friend  Bendaoeed  met  me  at  the  reading- 
room  of  the  Boston  Public  Library.  Here  I  was 
glad  to  see  that  he  had  a  few  minutes  to  see  the 
evening  entertainment  that  a  Christian  city  pro 
vides  for  the  dirtiest,  meanest,  and  poorest  of  its 
people,  —  white,  black,  or  red, —  if  they  will  choose 
to  come  in.  Hundreds  of  men  and  women  were 
reading  quietly  there,  from  the  best  and  most 
costly  books  in  the  world,  if  they  had  chosen  to 
ask  for  them,  or  from  newspapers  and  magazines  of 
their  own  country,  whatever  that  was.  I  explained 
to  him  that  we  must  not  loiter,  that  I  had  promised 
to  be  exactly  on  time.  And,  by  the  way,  I  had 
noticed  before  this  time,  that  he  always  was. 

We  went  in  at  the  front  of  the  gambling-house 
without  ringing,  but  once  within,  I  pressed  an  elec 
tric  knob,  as  I  had  been  bidden.  Instantly  a  flash 
light  from  upstairs  dazzled  us  both.  Somebody 
inspected  us.  In  a  moment  a  boy  with  buttons 
came  down,  and  asked  my  name.  I  gave  him  my 
card  and  that  of  the  gentleman  who  introduced  me, 


34  IF  JESUS    CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

and  we  went  upstairs.  I  noticed,  as  we  passed  two 
doors,  that  both  of  them  were  well  guarded  by 
men.  But,  once  in  the  large  parlor  itself,  there  was 
nothing  but  luxury. 

It  was  a  large  club-room,  taking  the  whole  of 
that  floor  of  the  house.  There  were  twenty  or 
thirty  young  men  about,  —  one  or  two  I  recog 
nized.  I  had  seerf  them  at  Cambridge,  or  at  their 
fathers'  dining-tables.  My  companion  explained 
to  my  ignorance  that  the  larger  table  was  a  roulette- 
table,  the  smaller  one  a  faro-table.  In  one  corner 
was  a  dining-table,  elegantly  served  with  wines, 
other  liquors,  and  whatever  one  might  like  to  eat, 
with  two  or  three  black  waiters.  Comfortable 
chairs,  and  an  easy  lounge  or  two,  were  ready  for 
people  not  playing  at  the  moment.  There  were  a 
few  sporting  newspapers,  the  New  York  papers  of 
the  day,  and  in  one  corner  a  desk  where,  as  we 
entered,  I  happened  to  see  a  young  fellow  cashing 
a  check.  He  took  a  handful  of  bills,  and  some 
chips,  to  use  at  the  moment  on  the  tables. 

Bendaoeed  looked  not  so  much  at  the  roulette 
wheel,  for  which  he  cared  no  more  than  he  had 
cared  for  the  telephone.  He  seemed  to  care  for 
no  thing,  —  only  for  man.  A  waiter  who  saw  that 
we  were  strangers  offered  me  some  oysters  as  we 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  35 

looked  round.  Bendaoeed  refused  them,  and  I 
could  see  that  he  was  watching  a  group  of  the 
older  men  at  the  faro-table.  He  bent  over  and 
whispered  to  me : 

"  That  tall  man,  with  black  hair,  —  he  is  point 
ing  across  the  table." 

But  at  that  moment  we  heard  a  tremendous 
crash  on  the  door  below.  One,  two  heavy  strokes, 
as  of  the  head  of  an  axe.  A  man  who,  I  after 
ward  heard,  was  Buddy  himself,  sprang  from  behind 
the  desk. 

"  My  God  !  how  could  this  have  happened?  " 

He  meant  that,  he  supposed  he  was  under  police 
protection.  He  had  bribed  some  under-officials. 

Instantly  the  lights  were  turned  down,  the  win 
dows  were  flung  up,  and  I  saw  the  man  next  me 
throw  some  chips  out  of  the  window.  The  man  at 
the  entrance  slid  a  heavy  bar  into  place,  so  that 
it  should  hold  the  door.  The  inmates,  all  as  I 
thought,  excepting  me  and  the  man  at  the  door 
and  my  companion,  rushed  upstairs  to  the  next 
floor.  "  Bang  !  bang  !  "  we  could  hear  the  axes  be 
low.  And  before  the  rush  upstairs  of  the  officers, 
some  one  —  not  I  —  had  pushed  up  the  bar  which 
held  us  in,  so  that  they  entered  easily.  They  put 
handcuffs  on  me,  on  my  friend,  and  the  black 


36  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

waiter.  Some  one  found  the  gas-key  and  lighted 
the  room.  The  officers  ran  up  to  the  roof,  to  meet 
one  and  another  prisoner ;  for  the  roof  had  been 
guarded  first,  and  was  held  by  a  party  of  the 
police. 

Then  there  was  careful  handcuffing  of  a  party 
of  more  than  twenty,  and  we  were  all  marched  to 
the  station.  I  expressed  to  my  Eastern  friend  my 
regret  and  dismay.  But  he  said,  very  simply,  that 
it  was  no  new  experience  with  him,  that  we  could 
not  be  of  use  without  running  some  risk,  and  that 
our  service  to  God  was  worth  very  little  if  we  could 
not  go  before  a  magistrate  now  and  then.  For  his 
part  it  was  clear  that  he  was  more  interested  in 
looking  up  black  sheep  than  in  "  S'iety  "  or  the 
haunts  of  "  S'iety." 

He  reminded  me  of  John  Bunyan. 

So  we  spent  the  night  there.  It  was  a  night  I 
shall  never  forget.  Before  two  hours  were  over, 
all  our  comrades  were  bailed  out.  It  seemed  it 
was  a  part  of  the  business  of  Buddy  to  provide 
bail  for  them  that  they  should  appear  in  court  the 
next  morning,  and  a  bail  commissioner  was  in 
readiness.  I  told  my  friend  that  I  supposed  I 
could  wake  up  some  friend  and  have  him  come 
and  bail  us  out ;  but  he  said  he  had  much  rather 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON.  37 

spend  the  night  where  he  was.  And  when  I  saw 
how  he  spent  it,  I  did  not  wonder. 

There  was  a  separate  room  for  the  poor  drunken 
women  who  had  been  brought  in,  and  others,  old 
and  young,  of  their  sex.  There  was  a  nice  moth 
erly  woman  who  had  the  oversight  of  them,  and 
he  went  in  and  talked  to  them  so  kindly  that  I 
believe  that  those  who  were  sober  enough  to  hear 
him  were  other  people  afterward.  If  there  is 
casting  out  of  seven  devils  nowadays,  he  certainly 
did  it  that  night  with  them.  As  for  our  young 
college  friends,  who  sat  round  us  waiting  for  the 
bail  man  to  come,  it  was  wonderful  to  see  how  he 
got  on  with  them,  and  I  cannot  think  that  many 
of  those  fellows  were  found  in  gambling  hells 
again. 

By  two  o'clock  everybody  was  bailed  who 
wanted  to  be  bailed ;  and  then  he  and  I  slept  in 
bunks,  comfortably  enough,  till  morning.  In  the 
morning,  after  we  had  had  the  fare  of  prisoners, 
we,  and  a  lot  of  other  people  who  had  been  drink 
ing  or  breaking  heads  the  night  before,  were  put 
into  carts  and  carried  to  the  Municipal  Court. 

I  knew  the  judge  perfectly  well,  and  of  course 
he  was  surprised  to  see  me  there.  But  he  and  I 
have  met  in  queer  places  before.  Gradually  the 


38  IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

Harvard  fellows  began  dropping  in,  looking  a  good 
deal  ashamed,  to  say  the  truth.  But  before  our 
case  came  up,  we  had  a  chance  to  see  a  pretty 
thing,  which  interested  the  Syrian  gentleman  very 
much. 

It  was  the  retiring,  once  and  again,  from  the 
court-room,  of  the  judge  with  some  poor  woman 
and  the  women's  probation  officer.  We  both 
looked  at  her  with  great  interest.  The  balance 
and  steadiness  with  which  she  talked  with  these 
women,  and  the  evident  confidence  the  judge  had 
in  her,  could  not  but  affect  you.  What  she  was 
there  for  was  explained  to  Bendaoeed,  and  how 
she  could  treat  one  and  another  of  these  women 
without  exposing  them  to  the  shame  of  a  public 
prison.  The  three  would  come  out,  and  the  poor 
crying  prisoner  would  be  made  to  sit  on  one  side 
with  Miss  Todd,  till  she  could  dispose  of  her ;  and 
you  felt  that  mercy  and  justice  had  met  together. 

Our  turn  came.  The  case  was  explained.  I 
told  the  judge  why  we  were  there,  and  that  my 
friend  was  in  search  of  a  countryman  of  his,  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  him  away.  The  judge  said 
aloud  that  men  were  judged  by  the  company  they 
kept,  but  that  he  would  dismiss  us  both,  on  our 
personal  recognizance  to  appear  when  we  were 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON.  39 

needed.  This  is  a  mild  way  of  intimating  that  we 
had  been  in  a  business  which  the  law  did  not 
much  approve,  but  that  they  did  not  mean  to 
punish  us.  The  Syrian  shook  hands  with  him 
cordially,  said  he  was  delighted  to  see  in  practice 
the  way  in  which  judicial  affairs  were  conducted, 
—  and  we  went  on  our  way. 


40  IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON. 


CHAPTER    V. 

I  MUST  not  talk  in  so  much  detail,  and  really 
the  story  comes  to  its  sudden  end.  We  found  the 
brother,  so  called,  of  Mahalath,  who  was  in  fact  only 
some  distant  kinsman,  and  from  him  got  a  clew 
to  a  child  at  South  Boston,  for  whom  he  thought 
he  ought  to  inquire.  I  had  got  a  side-clew  to  the 
same  child  from  Miss  Zilpha  Smith  at  the  Bureau. 
By  this  time  I  had  found  out  that  he  did  quite  as 
well  without  me  as  he  did  with  me ;  but  even  if 
he  had  wanted  to  go  without  me  I  could  not  go 
without  him,  —  so  that  I  undertook  to  show  him 
through  the  intricacies  of  the  South  Boston 
bridges.  This  brought  us  down  on  the  South 
Cove,  where  I  took  him  upstairs,  that  we  might 
make  a  necessary  inquiry.  I  tapped  at  a  door  in 
the  third  story  of  the  house,  and  in  an  instant  it 
was  opened  by  a  young  woman  in  the  Salvation 
Army  dress.  She  laughed  good-naturedly,  and 
said,  "  You  see  I  am  at  work."  That  was  clear 
enough,  for  she  had  risen  from  her  knees,  and  her 
pail  and  scrubbing-brush  were  beside  her.  She 


IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON.  41 

had  moved  her  patient  into  the  next  room,  —  the 
poor  people  there  had  made  room  for  her  till  this 
back  room  could  be  cleaned,  —  and  the  "  mission 
ary  "  was  showing  that  she  understood  her  busi 
ness,  by  putting  the  sick  woman's  room  in  order. 

My  friend  was  so  pleased,  that  I  thought  for  a 
moment  he  would  go  on  his  knees  and  finish  the 
job.  But  she  would  not  let  him  do  that.  She 
said,  as  if  she  knew  him  better  than  I  did,  "  Oh, 
you  have  more  important  work  to  do,  and  I  am 
nearly  done  here ;  "  and  then  she  asked  me  what 
she  could  do  for  me.  We  got  the  address  in  a 
minute,  and  went  downstairs ;  and  as  we  went,  he 
said  something  about  those  people  who  did  their 
duty  themselves,  instead  of  commissioning  other 
people  to  appoint  other  people  to  suggest  the 
names  of  other  people  who  should  select  other 
people  to  do  the  duty.  All  this  he  said  as  if  this 
hand-to-hand  business  met  his  approval  in  a 
special  way. 

I  will  not  say  that  he  could  have  got  to  South 
Boston  without  me.  In  the  present  state  of  the 
bridges,  it  is  a  science  to  go  to  South  Boston.  But 
in  a  little  we  were  ringing  at  the  door-bell  of  the 
house  I  remembered  as  the  Home  for  Imbeciles, 
—  to  be  told,  what  I  knew  perfectly  well,  only  I 


42  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON. 

had  forgotten  it,  that  the  Home  had  been  removed 
to  Waltham  six  years  before !  He  laughed 
heartily  at  me,  and  bade  me  observe  that  this  was 
what  happened  when  he  trusted  himself  to  my 
care ;  and  I  had  to  confess  that,  though  I  live  here 
within  a  mile  of  them,  I  had  taken  for  granted 
their  administration  so  entirely  that  I  had  not  been 
near  them  since  that  time. 

So  this  time  we  did  not  go  on  foot.  I  called  a 
cab  just  in  time  to  catch  the  Albany  train ;  we 
caught  an  electric  at  West  Newton  on  the  moment ; 
and  one  or  two  inquiries  brought  us  to  the  door  at 
Waltham. 

I  cannot  go  to  that  Home  without  crying  my 
eyes  out,  — and  I  am  forty  years  older  than  I  was 
when  I  went  there  first.  Bendaoeed  did  not  find 
the  particular  child  he  came  for,  but  he  found  a 
dozen  boys  and  girls  who  thronged  round  him 
with  an  eager,  confiding  air,  —  well,  I  have  hardly 
seen  it  ever  on  other  faces  than  on  those  of  the 
feeble-minded.  They  seem  to  value  kindness  so 
much,  and  they  seem  to  know  that  you  want  to  be 
kind  to  them.  And  he,  —  it  seemed  as  if  he  could 
not  tear  himself  away.  It  seemed  as  if  he  had 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  and 
as  if  he  had  met  his  opportunity.  It  was  only  be- 


IF  JESUS  CAME  TO  BOSTON.  43 

cause  he  had  promised  to  be  at  another  place  at 
another  hour  that  he  left  these  poor  children. 

Before  the  Fitchburg  train  came  along,  we  had 
a  chance,  by  a  late  lunch,  to  make  good  the  Spar 
tan  severity  of  our  breakfast;  and  then  by  five 
o'clock  we  were  in  town. 

I  do  not.  know  how  many  clews  he  had  on  his 
book.  In  fact,  he  never  seemed  to  look  at  his 
book  after  he  had  put  the  entries  down.  It  seemed 
as  if  any  chance  to  help  anybody  was  burned  in 
on  his  mind,  so  that  he  did  not  need  to  refresh  his 
memory.  But  for  me,  I  had  one  thread  of  which 
I  had  made  a  note,  which  I  wanted  to  follow  out. 
So  I  made  him  take  an  electric,  and  we  came  to 
the  school-room  in  Cottage  street. 

But  it  was  no  school-room  which  we  found  there. 
Here  were,  in  two  large  rooms,  groups  of  children, 
of  all  ages,  from  five  years  old,  well,  perhaps  to 
fifteen.  I  told  him  that  I  called  it  "  a  children's 
club,"  and  he  was  very  much  amused  and  very 
much  interested.  The  boys  and  girls  were  all 
reading,  quite  as  a  lot  of  loafing  gentlemen  might 
be  reading  at  the  Union  Club  or  the  Somerset, — 
except  that  none  of  them  were  smoking.  The 
school-room  had  been  cleared  out,  had  been  aired, 
the  tables  had  been  put  in  order,  and  then  Miss 


44  IF  JESUS   CAME  TO   BOSTON. 

Wiltse  had  come  round  and  unlocked  her  libraries, 
and  these  little  witches  had  come  thronging  in 
because  these  rooms  were  so  comfortable  and 
pretty,  and  because  Miss  Wiltse  made  them  so 
completely  at  home.  She  'knew  what  book  every 
child  had  the  day  before,  or  she  picked  out  a  new 
one.  She  went  round,  explaining  the  pictures  to 
this  child,  talking  to  another  about  butterflies  or 
birds,  making  a  third  remember  about  her  pas 
sage  from  Europe ;  and,  in  a  word,  petting  those 
children,  playing  with  them,  and  teaching  them, 
exactly  as  an  older  sister  might  do.  I  tried  to  ex 
plain  that  the  children  would  have  no  such  experi 
ence  at  home,  —  that  Miss  Wiltse  was  trying, 
indeed,  to  give  them  a  better  chance  than  they 
would  have  had  at  home,  without  taking  them  away 
from  the  natural  affection  of  father  and  mother.  It 
was  clear  enough  that  the  children  liked  to  come. 
When  the  clock  struck  six  they  went  away  kissing 
their  friend,  and  with  real  grief.  She  explained  to 
us  that  the  rooms  would  be  aired  and  cleared  and 
provided  with  books  for  the  older  children,  and 
that  after  an  hour  had  been  given  for  supper  a  like 
session  would  be  renewed  for  them  until  nine 
o'clock.  "  It  is  so  much  better  than  if  they  were 
in  the  streets,"  she  said,  —  to  which  he  assented, 
and  I  am  sure  I  did. 


IF  JESUS   CAME  TO  BOSTON.  45 

When  we  came  out  on  Tremont  street,  to  my 
surprise  he  did  not  come  over  here  with  me.  He 
only  said,  "  Do  not  keep  the  house  open.  If  I  am 
not  with  you  at  nine,  you  will  not  see  me  before 
morning."  And  I  came  home  to  explain  to  my 
wife  why  she  had  not  seen  me  for  thirty-six  hours. 

Just  before  nine,  the  bell  rang,  and  a  telegraph- 
boy  brought  a  despatch.  I  was  afraid  Bendaoeed 
had  come  to  grief  again,  he  seemed  so  reckless. 
But  the  despatch  said : 

"/  have  gone  to  Chicago.  I  find  I  have  other 
sheep  there.  What  you  in  Boston  have  been  doing 
to  the  least  of  these  my  brethren  and  my  sisters,  you 
have  done  it  unto  me.  B" 

And  I  never  saw  him  again. 


THIS   BOOK   IS   DUE   ON   THE   LAST   DATE 
STAMPED   BELOW 


RENEWED   BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO   IMMEDIATE 
RECALL 


JUN  0  3  20W 


LIBRARY,   UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-Series  458 


N9   898935 


PS1772  Hale,  Edward  Everett,  1822-1909. 

13  If  Jesus  came  to  Boston,  by  Edward  E.  Hale.   Boston,  L*m 

son,  Wo!  fife,  and  company,  1895. 

45  p.  19J-. 


L  Title. 

•-HWOT 

Library  of  Coa^reea  >ITYD^  r 


